"Women's economic empowerment"

15 March 2017, New York, USA | South-South News — “Women's economic empowerment in the changing world of work” is the theme of the 2017 session of the Commission on Status of Women (CSW). UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the opening on March 13 that “the empowerment of women must be a key priority.”

With men still dominating even in countries that consider themselves progressive, Guterres told the CSW that “women already have what it takes to succeed” stressing that “empowerment is about breaking structural barriers.” The Secretary-General said “some governments are enacting laws that curtail women’s freedoms” while “others are holding back legal protections against domestic violence.”

He said “women’s rights are human rights, and attacks on women are attacks on all of us.”

In her address, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said there are “still a myriad of laws in more than 150 countries that discriminate against women.”

She called on decision makers “to address the stereotypes, and norms, and practices that discriminate against women and girls and have for generations denied women career paths on par with those of men.”

Mlambo-Ngcuka said “it is also more urgent that we respect and protect women’s sexual and reproductive rights and health and ensure that unmet needs of family planning for women are met, because this would limit unwanted pregnancies and the consequences for mothers who may wish to work outside the home and because of their rights not being fully protected, they are hindered.”

The CSW is the principal global intergovernmental body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The CSW's sixty-first session will run through March 24.